Are Law School Graduates Victims?

Generally speaking, I don't like to use this blog as a personal soap box. However, I felt obligated, as a recent law grad, to post a response to this blog by Brian Tannebaum, a lawyer in Miami whose blog is targeted at law school students. Here are my two cents:

I was a millennial law student (SLU '08) and did not get a job immediately out of law school. As a result, I worked hard to get my own practice(s) started and am slowly but surely developing both a client base and a network of referral sources.

Which brings me to my next point. What made any one expect that the "busting their [butt]" phase of their lives would end after law school? If you don't like where you ended up after graduation (in a down economy and with ever-increasing numbers of law grads), got off your couch and do something about it. Start your own practice (it doesn't have to cost a lot, done right). Get on the court appointment lists. Find a mentor. Take free CLEs (they're everywhere) and use them to network. You have yourself to blame, not the law schools.

I'll finish with a little bit of a glimpse into my political perspective. (I'm a registered independent, by the way) Through interactions with my generation and my sister's generation (yes, I put her in a different generation from myself), it has become apparent to me that we have fostered an attitude of entitlement in our youth. Not through federal programs or direct state intervention, although that has not helped, but through the school systems and through parenting. Our culture no longer teaches kids that life isn't fair. Instead, they learn that, if you whine loud enough or long enough, someone will notice you, agree with you, and give you what you wanted all along. Anyone who gripes that the system has failed them is, in fact, a product of that same system. Today's law students aren't any different, and their reaction to the lack of lawyer jobs doesn't really surprise me.